Stance in CEO Statements from U.S. and Vietnamese Banks’ Annual Reports: A Corpus-Based Cross-Cultural Study

Stance constructions in CEO statements of CSR reports of Chinese and US companies

Vietnamese banking system has been playing a vital role in the development and economic growth since the economic renewal campaign namely “Doi Moi” in 1986. However, since the global financial crisis, financial and banking system has been put under stress, exposing much weaknesses, severely affecting the whole economy. Additionally, the wave of financial liberalization raise questions about the competitiveness of Vietnamese commercial banks in the competition with the foreigners. The main purpose of this paper is to measure the market concentration using the k banks concentration ratio (CRk) and the Hirschman-Herfindahl index (HHI) and test for the market competition in Vietnamese banking sector under Panzar-Rossse approach by an unbalanced panel data of 33 commercial banks for the period from 2004 to 2013. Vietnamese banking sector is found to be high-concentration although it is experiencing a decreasing trend. The test for market competition indicate a monopolistic behavior of Vietnamese commercial banks. No surprising, the state-owned commercial banks and foreign banks are found to be superior in the competition with joint-stock commercial banks and domestic banks, respectively. In addition, commercial banks seem to get benefit with foreign investments.

This study is conducted to identify how corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences consumer loyalty in the banking sector in Vietnam — an emerging economy. The social identity theory, stakeholder theory, and signaling theory are used to answer the question “Does CSR directly or indirectly influence customer loyalty in the banking sector in Vietnam?” To accomplish the research objectives, qualitative and quantitative mixed research methods are used. Qualitative research aims to adjust the scale of constructs to suit the Vietnamese market through face-to-face discussions with 10 Vietnamese customers. A survey is then carried out with 299 Vietnamese customers who have experience dealing with banks in Vietnam. Data collected are processed by Smart Partial Least Square (PLS) software with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Research results showed that CSR has no direct impact on customer loyalty. However, CSR has an indirect effect on customer loyalty through an intermediate variable of service quality. Service quality has a strong influence on customer loyalty. The administrative implications of this research are that Vietnamese banks should consider CSR as a way to help improve service quality, thereby increasing customer loyalty. CSR factors to consider are legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. To improve service quality to increase customer loyalty, Vietnamese banks need to pay attention to the factors of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Future research directions that can be implemented include: use stakeholder dimensions for CSR; use other mediators such as brand image, customer satisfaction, and customer trust; and research in other countries with emerging economies similar to Vietnam to increase generalization.

In this study, we construct a classificatory scheme of impression management tactics and apply it to a sample of sustainability report and annual report CEO statements issued by large Turkish companies. We find a wide range of impression management tactics applied in both types of CEO statements. However, impression management in sustainability report CEO statements emerges as more limited and uniform, revealing clearer prioritizations of impression management tactics when compared to annual report CEO statements. Sustainability report CEO statements emphasize tactics that allow the company to highlight carefully selected, isolated aspects of their sustainability engagement. At the same time, they rarely employ tactics that are geared towards more systematic (quantitative) performance evaluation. We attribute these differences to the way in which corporate sustainability performance is commonly conceptualized and evaluated, emphasising qualitative performance dimensions rather than the reporting of quantitative performance metrics. This results in the application of a different impression management tactics mix and limits the usefulness of sustainability reports as an accountability mechanism when compared to corporate annual reports. In addition, we provide tentative evidence for the context‐specific nature of impression management, with the choice of impression management tactics reflecting the institutional environment a company is based in.

This genre-based study comprises a comparative content analysis of textual and pictorial themes in a corpus of Dutch-English and British managerial forewords. It indicates that there are significant thematic differences between the Dutch-English CEO's statements, the British CEO's statements, and the British Chairman's statements and that these may be attributable to communicative and historical conventions as well as to current affairs in a particular business community. The present analysis, therefore, suggests that these managerial forewords cannot be considered as identical texts, although all are part of the same comprehensive document (i.e., the annual report). As such, this study suggests that text analysts, instructors, and practitioners in intercultural communication should be sensitive to both textual and contextual features for a full understanding of professional texts in intercultural discourse situations

This study presents a corpus-assisted comparison of Chinese and Western chief executive officer statements in annual reports. Using two self-built corpora of 15 statements from 2017 to 2021 annual reports in three Chinese listed pharmaceutical companies, representative of Chinese companies, and 15 statements from 2017 to 2021 annual reports in one American multinational, one British multinational and one Australian listed corporation in the same industry, representative of Western companies, this study employs the Discourse-Historical Approach of Critical Discourse Studies and the corpus linguistic analysis tool Wmatrix5 to investigate linguistic means, discursive strategies and semantic domains of the two corpora. The study results show that Chinese CEOs tend to present an objective, authoritative and thriving “out-group” identity with strong awareness of environmental protection while Western CEOs tend to project an affiliative, inclusive and well-established “in-group” identity with leading industrial status and a global mindset. This study is of significance in understanding cross-cultural differences in projecting corporate identities through CEO statements in annual reports.

Purpose: This study evaluated the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives undertaken by banks in Vietnam on their overall performance. Additionally, it sought to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility and digital transformation efforts within the framework of the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research uses a survey sample from Southeast Vietnam, specifically Binh Duong Province, Dong Nai Province, Tay Ninh Province, Ba RIA Vung Tau Province and Ho Chi Minh City. A total of 245 valid questionnaires were gathered from mid- and senior-level executives, senior employees and department heads who have implemented digital transformation strategies in banks. Findings: This study explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility and firm performance in Vietnam's financial industry focusing on the banking sector. The study discovered a favourable relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and enterprise digital transformation as well as a good relationship between CSR and digital transformation and Vietnamese banks' business success. Conclusion: The digital economy has increasingly contributed to global economic development. Today’s digital landscape is undergoing a widespread phenomenon known as digital transformation. Hence, it is crucial to examine the impact of digital transformation on business processes. Practical Implications: The data also supports the idea that digital transformation serves as a mediator between corporate CSR and financial performance contributing to filling the gap when there is limited research in Vietnam on this relationship. Contribution to the Literature: This research aims to help banks in Vietnam enhance operational efficiency when banks actively engage in CSR and digital transformation.

Since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 2007, the country has faced a number of challenges to comply with WTO requirements. One of these challenges was to reorganize Vietnam's banking sector so it would comply with WTO commitments, entailing that banks from other countries are now allowed to do business in Vietnam with the same rights and privileges as local banks. This spurred Vietnamese banks to improve their competitiveness and increase their performance, as otherwise they would inevitably lag behind foreign competitors. The research described in this article was aimed at finding the factors that make Vietnamese banks excellent.

This study aims to examine the impact of knowledge management (KM) activities on employee performance (EP) in the banking sector. Our research can be considered as one of the few studies on the KM-EP nexus. The focus of this study is to find out which activities of the KM process have a significant effect on EP in Vietnamese banks. Data collected through questionnaire survey from 60 employees in four major banks in Vietnam was analysed by using factor analysis, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and regression analysis. The results determined that two KM activities (knowledge dissemination and knowledge application) significantly and positively influence the EP of Vietnamese banks. This study also proposes some practical implications related to KM strategy for the banks to improve the performance of bank employees.

Purpose This research examines the connection between intellectual capital (IC) and risk profile (credit risk, insolvency risk and liquidity risk) in the Vietnamese banking sector. Design/methodology/approach The data were adopted from the quarterly financial statements of 27 commercial banks in Vietnam from 2008 to 2024. This paper used the value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) methodology to measure IC. Findings The findings of the main analysis reveal that capital employed efficiency (CEE) and human capital efficiency (HCE) are associated with all three types of risk measured. The disaggregated ownership results indicate that only HCE is related to risks in state-owned commercial banks, whereas both HCE and CEE are linked to risks in private commercial banks. The analysis findings also suggest that the relationship between CEE and risk is moderated by income diversification, highlighting the importance of diverse management strategies for more effective risk management. Practical implications By focusing on improving human capital, integrating risk management into their core strategies and leveraging technology, Vietnamese banks can effectively mitigate risks and enhance their financial stability. Originality/value This paper is the first to examine the correlations between IC and banking risks in Vietnam. This study divided the ownership structure of Vietnamese banks into public and private banks. It also examined the moderating effect of income diversification on IC and bank risks in Vietnam.

The technological revolution 4.0 brings great opportunities, but also cybercrimes to economic sectors, especially to banks. Using secondary data and survey results of 305 bank clients, the main findings of this paper are: (i) there are several types of cybercrimes in the banking sector; (ii) Vietnam is one of the top countries worldwide having hackers and being attacked by hackers, especially the banking sector. Three most common attacks are skimming, hacking and phishing. Number of cybercrime attacks in Vietnam are increasing rapidly over years; (iii) Vietnamese customers are very vulnerable to cybercrime in banking, as more than 58% seem to hear about cybercrimes, and how banks provide services to let them know about their transactions. However, more than 50% do not have any deep knowledge or any measures for preventing cybercrime; (iii) Customers believe in banks, but do not think that banks can deal with cybercrime issues well. They still feel traditional transactions are more secure than e-transactions; (iv) the reasons for high cybercrimes come from commercial banks (low management and human capacity), supporting environment (inadequate), legal framework (not yet strong and strict enough on cybercrimes), and clients (low level of financial literacy). Therefore, several solutions should be carried out, from all stakeholders, for improving the cybersecurity in Vietnamese banks.

This paper examines whether there is a causal relationship between bank loans and deposits in the Vietnamese banking system and the efficiency of the use of loans and deposits by the Vietnamese banks. In a country such as Vietnam, where inter-bank money markets are relatively underdeveloped, one would expect a reasonably strong relationship between deposits and loans. A pooled cross-sectional sample of financial ratios is collected from annual reports of 44 Vietnamese banks covering the period 2008–2015. The explanatory power of instrumental variables in relation to the endogenous variables is tested. A deterministic frontier model based on corrected ordinary least squares, estimated by three-stage least squares on a simultaneous equations model, is employed to derive the frontiers for the sampled banks as well as to estimate the causality between bank loans and deposits. Our findings suggest that, in an underdeveloped banking system such as Vietnam, bank deposits have a positive and significant impact on bank loans, but the reverse relationship is not significant. It is further suggested that in deposit-taking and loan-creating activities, Vietnamese banks performed moderately well over the period examined; however, in the near future, they should start to focus more on deposit-taking activities.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinant of Vietnamese banks' capital adequacy ratio (CAR) by internal banking factors. Secondary data is collected from banks' annual reports in the period of 2009–2015. FGLS method and panel data are used to examine a regression model with CAR is the dependent variable and five independent variables: bank size (SIZE), loans (LOA), loan loss reserve (LLR), liquidity (LIQ), profitability (ROE). The results show that SIZE and LIQ impact negatively on CAR with significant meanings. On the other hand, LLR and LOA also affect CAR negatively but they are insignificant.

PurposeVietnamese banks have relied in the past on short‐term promotional techniques and attractive interest rates instead of developing strong brands. This research investigates how customers’ perceptions of bank brands drive their trust and loyalty. It also addresses how customers’ experience and their social compliance moderate the impact of their brand perceptions on their trust and loyalty.Design/methodology/approachCustomers’ perceptions are measured through brand associations based on the bank's functional elements, its personnel and its overall image. A structural equation model linking brand associations to customers’ trust and loyalty is tested using data from a sample of 557 Vietnamese bank customers.FindingsThe results indicate that the personnel‐based brand associations are the strongest driver of trust and have a negative direct impact on loyalty, while functional and corporate‐based associations have a stronger impact on loyalty. Trust strongly mediates brand associations’ impact on loyalty. In addition, corporate‐based associations have a stronger impact on trust and loyalty for customers with little direct experience with the bank and personnel‐based associations have a stronger impact for socially compliant customers.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate how different brand associations can be leveraged to trigger customers’ trust and loyalty in the Vietnamese banking sector. Moderating effects of the extent of customers’ experience imply that bank brand managers should integrate the customer relationship lifecycle in their segmentation/targeting and in their customer‐brand relationship management.Originality/valueThis study highlights the potential of branding in the Vietnamese banking industry as a strategy to build strong customer relationships. It also strongly points out the need for brand managers to take into consideration the Vietnamese context and more precisely customers’ lack of banking experience and their tendency to social compliance.

Purpose This study examines the evolution of crisis communication strategies in the Vietnamese banking sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent real estate crisis. It analyzes how Vietnamese banks adapted their shareholder letter communications to address risk management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and technological innovation in response to these challenges. Design/methodology/approach The research employs a qualitative content analysis of 91 shareholder letters from 21 Vietnamese banks listed on major stock exchanges, covering the period from 2020 to 2022. Each letter was manually coded to explore patterns in communication related to risk management, CSR, and technological innovation during these crises. Findings Findings reveal a significant shift towards proactive risk management strategies, enhanced CSR initiatives emphasizing community support and financial relief, and accelerated digital transformation efforts to improve customer experiences and operational efficiency. These findings highlight the unique challenges faced by banks in an emerging market context, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, resilience, and a customer-centric approach during crises. Originality/value This study seeks to contribute to the literature on crisis communication in two key ways. Firstly, by focusing on the Vietnamese banking sector, it provides a unique examination of how banks in an emerging market adapt their communication strategies to navigate consecutive crises, offering insights into the dynamic nature of crisis communication in a context characterized by volatility and rapid change. Secondly, it provides practical lessons for crisis management and communication in emerging economies, while also contributing to theoretical understanding of how organizations adapt and communicate during periods of prolonged uncertainty.